What is it ?

A series of four workshops on bowl turning ideas and techniques. Come to all four or just the ones that cover areas you’re interested in.

On consecutive Thursdays 7-9pm, starting on Thursday 20 April.

Each session will be mixture of discussion, demonstration, and hands-on turning – come along, get involved and make some shavings.

The aim of each session is to try different ways of doing things. This means trying things you haven’t tried before, experimenting with shapes and techniques, embracing the possibility of things going wrong. This means that you may not end up with a finished bowl. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

These are not expert sessions, but nor are they suitable for complete beginners. The sessions are intended for members who are comfortable mounting a piece of wood on the lathe and turning it to completion.

Session One – Thursday 20 April

Blanks – Selecting a blank, converting logs to blanks, side vs end grain, cut rim vs natural edge.

Initial mounting methods – screw chuck, face plate ring, face plate, between centres, cole jaws, Longworth chuck. Roughing to a balanced blank.

Session Two – Thursday 27 April

Before turning the outside, think ahead, how will we hold it when we want to turn the inside? Recess vs spigot, creating the holding point, chucks and jaws.

Turning the outside – tools, approach, shapes, roughing, finishing.

Session Three – Thursday 4 May

Turning the inside – various approaches. Rims, undercuts, wall thickness.

Session Four – Thursday 11 May

Finishing – scraping, shear scraping, abrasives, finishing products.

Hiding your holding point – jam chuck, pad, cole jaws, wood plate jaws, Longworth chuck, vacuum chuck. Reshaping the recess or spigot.

What to bring

We will provide the wood. The club tools, equipment and PPE will be available but bring your own if you prefer.

You don’t have to book a place but it would help if you could let us know if you are coming so we can prepare enough blanks etc. Email phil.howard50@btinternet.com

Following a request from members, next Tuesday, 7th March, Phil H (Medium Phil) will bring his Simon Hope Easy Arm hollowing rig to the workshop. Phil demonstrated how to set up the rig in a remote demo during lockdown, but this is a chance to see this system live and have-a-go if you want.

We’ll set it up on the big Jet lathe and make some shavings. The rig will accept any hollowing tool with a shaft 19mm diameter or smaller, so if you have a tool that you would like to try in the rig, bring it along. If you have no idea what we are talking about go to www.hopewoodturning.co.uk then lathe accessories and look for Easy Arm.

There will be a mini lathe going on sale in Lidl branches from Sunday 15th January. It might be of interest to someone just starting their woodturning journey. P.S. the included chisels are probably close to useless.

A special Christmas show has just opened in Gallery 141 at the Artists and Makers shop, 141 King Street, Castle Douglas. Phil H is a member of the co-operative that runs this shop and the shops in Kirkcudbright and Gatehouse.

A few pictures to show the range of goodies with plenty more variety in the main shop. A good place to find an unusual gift for that ‘difficult to buy for’ person.

Back by popular demand ! Well, at least one member asked us to run it again.

The Sharpening Workshop !!!

Seriously, sharpening is an essential skill that we all need to learn. If you can’t sharpen your tools consistently and easily, then that will make all of your turning much more difficult.

We will set up some of the Club lathes with spindle blanks, and outside and inside bowl blanks so that you can try a tool, then sharpen it and appreciate the difference. This practical work is essential – most us truly learn by DOING, not watching.

So, bring your tools and turning smock and you can make rubbish shavings with a blunt tool then beautiful curly ones with a sharp tool

Tuesday 16^th August, 7pm until about 9pm or whenever we finish.

My new lathe is up and running. Delivered on Tuesday, installed on Wednesday. Thanks to Rolf, Phil J and Geoff T for their help. For reference the bowl on the lathe is 15 inches in diameter.

 

My previous Wivamac lathe has gone to a good home at Dalbeattie Men’s Shed.

Happy New Year and lots of shavings to you all. Phil H

Members might be interested to see an unusual commission that I’ve just completed – an urn for a portion of someone’s cremation ashes. The club was contacted to see if any member could make this; Rolf asked a number of us and I was the one foolish enough to say I would have a go. The customer specified spalted beech wood and a gloss finish, not an easy combination. This is the result.

The finished size is about 9inches tall and just over 5 inches diameter. The button and drop finial inside the lid are ebony.  The outside has multiple coats of gloss acrylic lacquer, polished with burnishing cream. The lid is held on using a nitrile rubber ‘O’ ring as per the article for a coffee container in W/T 350. I experimented with using a screw thread cut from a plastic tumbler but decided not to use that because it would be difficult to maintain the grain match. I completed my test piece as a ‘flying saucer’ box and it is now for sale in the Artists and Makers shop in CD.

Here are three suspended pomanders completed from the bits I used in the on-line demo at the last Club meeting.

The project was featured in Woodturning magazine, Issue 348. If you would like to have a go at making one and don’t have the magazine, I can email you a scanned copy of the article. Email me at phil.howard50@btinternet.com and ask.  If you make any for sale, make sure that you credit the original designer Ian Woodford.

Phil H

It’s mine but I barely recognise it now ! It has been swept, vac’d (and vac’d and vac’d) and painted !

How long will it last when I start turning ?

Looking forward to getting back to the Club.

A reminder that this Saturday, 11th May is our ‘In the Green’ workshop on the joys of turning green wood. We’ll discuss what to do with all the wood that we ‘acquire’, which usually splits so much that it’s useless before we get round to doing something with it !